It ended with Chibok.
Whatever benefit of doubt I had given President Goodluck Jonathan’s wobbly leadership before then completely evaporated after the daughters of Chibok went missing.
276 girls were kidnapped, and yet for 18 days our president was silent.
I was in Abuja around that time, I found out personally that his doubts were real. He felt they were his enemies at work. And because of that, my president abandoned the job we elected him to do, and let terrorists run far with 276 little girls...because of politics.
That was already an unforgivable error.
Yet, he continued in this abdication of responsibility. He not only refused to show empathy for weeks and months; he and his lieutenants went ahead to attack, demean and attempt to delegitimise ordinary citizens who only sought to step in where government had failed.
The implication was clear - this was not a president who cared deeply that little girls were missing, and that their lives were at risk.
This was a president who would choose politics over leadership, even when lives were at stake.
I could have lied to myself before then, that Dr. Jonathan was only ‘making mistakes’. After this, there was no such lie to be told. This was not what a leader looked like.
I have liked the president as a person. I am convinced that he doesn’t by himself want anyone to die. Until last week as I watched him attack Buhari for not remembering his phone number, I could even swear that this was not a man desperate for power. I have seen him forgive enemies, embrace dissent, enable free and fair elections.
As a friend or an uncle with whom one would share banter, I would accept to accept him.
But as my president? He represents the worst of our propensities as Nigerians - the sad ability to interpret casualties only as numbers and not as people, the refusal to empathize with a woman who just lost her husband but to accuse her instead of killing [the] said husband, the ability to immediately begin to fight over property when a father has died. A refusal to permit our humanity define our reflexes.
Let me borrow words from a friend: 300 girls were wasted under his watch. More than a million Nigerians have lost EVERYTHING! Thousands have died under GEJ’s watch. I watch our neighboring states defeat Boko Haram and drive them out of their territory back into Nigeria and GEJ refers to it as all politics. I LOVE my life. I love my child and my husband and our flat and car and I cannot...CANNOT imagine losing all of that. As a human being - As a human woman, only Buhari will do. My vote is not for Buhari, but it is a vote against Jonathan. It is a vote for the traumatised people of the North East.
Because I no longer have any faith that Dr. Jonathan understands what it truly means to be a leader.
This is a president who stands on television and tells me corruption can be solved by technology. A president who truly, honestly does not understand that corruption is a question of accountability, personal and public, and a network of leaders who have character. This is a leader who outsources solutions and goes to sleep. This is a leader who doesn’t understand the importance and indispensability of leadership!
And then last week it happened again. It is almost surreal to me to imagine that this has happened again. At least 150 Nigerians (according to his government) were killed in #Baga, and for 48 hours after, the president did not have the decency, empathy or sense of responsibility to say a word. For four whole days, his people focused instead on insisting the dead were not 2000, but 150. As if it matters! As if it bloody matters! And when he finally spoke about them, he was so dismissive, as if they were a distraction.
Oh, God.
This has turned out to be a president without empathy, without comprehension of scale. This is a president under whom I do not feel safe. This is a president under whom fellow citizens have lost their lives, and he has admitted he cannot protect them. Even worse, he has arrogantly defended himself, insisting that not only can he do no better, but also it is impossible to do better.
A vote for Jonathan is therefore a supremely dangerous thing.
It is a vote that permits him to continue in this fatal mediocrity. It is a vote that emboldens Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants and every and all violent elements. It is a vote that says no one can do better than what Jonathan has done. It is a vote against the people of Chibok and Baga. It is a vote to reward failure.
How elections, especially in evolving democracies like ours, are truly not decided by manifestos. Let’s tell ourselves that truth.
They are decided by character and by leadership. What is the character of the man you are voting? Has he shown the will to solve problems in the past? Has he solved problems in the past? Does he have the strength and vision to lead? Does he have the character to lead?
I believe Buhari, in the one year he headed this country, showed that he has the strength, and vision and character to lead. But more desperately, Jonathan has already shown that he does not.
He has made it clear he will not do anything when my life and yours are at stake. He has made it clear he takes the burning of his campaign bus more seriously than the deaths of 150.
I cannot vote for such a man. I cannot have blood on my hands.
I know it is your democratic right to do what you wish on February 14. And I know whatever you choose is valid and legitimate. But your choice to vote for such a man, or not to vote at all is going to affect my life, your life, the lives of your children and the lives of millions of children across Nigeria.
For all our sakes, for the sake of my unborn child and yours, please pause and think again of what you are about to do.
Please.
Source: Y!Naija
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